Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs

by Erik Didriksen

Overview

The Bard meets the Backstreet Boys in Pop Sonnets, a collection of 100 classic pop songs reimagined as Shakespearean sonnets.

All your favorite songs are here, including hits by Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Talking Heads, and many others. With stirring sentiments on everything from love and despair to wanton women, Pop Sonnets offers inspirational verse for every occasion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594748288
Publisher:	Quirk Publishing
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	275,119
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)

About the Author

Erik Didriksen is a software engineer, musician, sonneteer, and trivia enthusiast. He lives in Astoria, New York.

Read an Excerpt

From western Philadelphia I hail,
where in my youth I’d play upon the green
’til — rue the day! — I found myself assail’d by ru{ans contemptible and mean.
Although the spat was trivial and brief,
it wounded my dear mother deep within;
and so, to give her conscience sweet relief,
she sent me forth to live amongst her kin.
When to my port of call I’d been convey’d,
I came upon a coachman most unique;
and yet I simply took the trip and paid,
despite his cab’s decor and fresh mystique.
     — I survey all the land with princely mien
     in fair Bel-Air, where I do lay my scene.

Will Smith, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”

Editorial Reviews

One of the very best collections of pop songs written in the style of William Shakespeare that I've read so far this year!”—“Weird Al” Yankovic

“Pop Sonnets is one of the absolute best of the disreputable breed of impulse-buy humor books. Didriksen brings an authentic dedication to craft and a lively sense of humor to this highly specific project.”—NPR

“This is a must-have for literary buffs and music fans alike.”—Paste magazine

“Smart and funny...Any reader who is intrigued by this concept will enjoy its fantastically skilled execution.”—Library Journal

“This book is made for drinking games or could moonlight as a pub quiz helper, and a well-loved teaching resource.”—Monsters & Critics

“To put it mildly, this is a terrific feat of will and intellect.”—Pop Matters

“Ingenious is the key word here.”—Free Lance-Star

From the Publisher

10/01/2015
This slim volume will be greeted with delight by fans of pop music, poets, theatergoers, and readers. It will also be loved by anyone who picks up the book and opens to the Trammps's "Disco Inferno," which includes this spectacular line: "Now was the winter of our disco tent/ made glorious summer by this sonic groove." Didriksen's Tumblr and website (popsonnet.com) have proved popular enough to spawn this book, which is smart and funny and sure to have great general appeal. Readers aren't expected to have read the works of William Shakespeare to enjoy "Ice Ice Baby" recast in sonnet form. Even the introduction is full of cheeky fun. Divided into sections by theme (Sonnets of Love, Songs of Time and Mortality, etc.), the hits included here will be largely familiar to most readers (such as "U Can't Touch This" and "Thriller" and "Let It Go"). Some sonnets are taken from the online material, but half of the book's content is original to this publication. VERDICT Any reader who is intrigued by this concept will enjoy its fantastically skilled execution. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/15, p. 32.]—Audrey Snowden, Orrington P.L., ME

Library Journal